You take one of your sister's hands gently in yours, stopping her pacing. "Hey, Hannah, what's going on? What's wrong?"
Seeming to really notice you as you try to help, Hannah suddenly wraps her arms around you in a tight, desperate hug. You hug her back, holding her and rubbing her back as she talks next to your ear.
"Oh, Richard," she says. "Richard, I'm really scared!"
Pulling back just a little to look into her eyes, you can see that as you try to brush some of her hair back from her face. "Why? What happened?"
It takes her a moment to get started before everything just floods out. "I overheard Aunt Gertrude talking to Mom yesterday. Richard, she wants to re-designate me. As food! She was talking about how I'm eighteen and I don't have a direction yet and when she was young all her brothers and sisters knew what they would do for the family by fifteen and blah, blah, blah. But then she talked about how I'm just using family resources and not contributing. How I haven't even proved I have the appetite for the family yet. And that I could at least give someone a good dinner so they can help the family. Mom tried to talk to her, but I think Aunt Gertrude is going to talk to the elders today! For all I know, she's just planning on eating me tonight no matter what!"
You know it's serious with Aunt Gertrude. Your mother's sister, though older by a decade or so, she is the self-appointed guardian of tradition and the scourge of the younger generation. She was the one who first taught you and a whole group of kids freshly designated as edible about the manners and practices expected of them in the next several years. You also know she takes absolute delight in punishing anyone she considers not upholding family traditions and has an appetite for young women.
So Hannah is really in trouble. Even if the elders don't agree to re-designate her, Aunt Gertrude could probably eat her and get away with the lightest slap on the wrist. You know you sister would never want her life to amount to feeding that severe, strict woman. So you think a moment and come up with an idea.
"Well, what if..."
